Ang liit! (Mac mini initial impressions)

[Adel]

Ay! Ang liit naman! (in another context and situation this would be embarrassing, but in this case it's a good thing).

I still can't get over the size of it. It's as big as a Case Logic 10-disc CD holder. It's even smaller than my external FW drive, which is just under the Mini in the picture.

In fact, when all the cords and cables are connected to it, the weight of them seems to overwhelm the Mac, it's so danged small. It puts to shame my poor old Quicksilver underneath, which now looks like a dinosaur. The Mac mini almost looks like an A/V breakout box or something, or an old, oversized powerbrick. In fact, the powerbrick that comes with it is even heavier, and clocks in at half the size of the Mini. The Mini itself just gets a little warm - the power brick is the one that gets toasty.



My only gripes are:

• the lack of ports - it's really the bare minimum; I'd trade in the modem port for another firewire one in a heartbeat;
• the fact that there is no ADC adapter for the video port for my old Apple LCD (there's a DVI-SVGA one included, which is generally more useful, but still... );
• I wish it had beefier video (32mb? I tried installing WoW on it and the installer scolded me that the unit was below specs - at 1.42GHz it was fast, but it bottlenecked at the video portion);
• the combo drive and the way it swallows a disc kinda disturbs me; you slide the disc in almost all the way and there is no reaction or response until it almost goes in whole; only then does the mechanism grip the disc; it's like you were slipping the CD into an empty box, like a coin in a piggy bank;
• It just has a plain mini stereo jack; I can't connect my Apple Pro speakers;
• RAM! 256? Man.
• Apple is touting it as a portable audio and video workstation option, but they don't make a Superdrive standard issue? Oy vey.
• I wish they ruggedized it some more; the way it's built, the thing will go places (literally), and often, and it doesn't look like it's up to the task.

Still and all, initial impressions aside, I love the thing.

(Advanced excerpts from a full review in a forthcoming issue of m|PH)


[Edited on 3-13-2005 by Adel]

[airjunkie]

Nice, Mr.Chairman. I'm looking forward to reading your full review. Meantime it's a bit of a wait yet for mine. I opted for the Bluetooth, 512mb Ram and the Superdrive.
Now I know I won't be disappointed.:P except for the 32mb video issue, i think I can live with that.

[Adel]

Originally posted by airjunkie
Nice, Mr.Chairman. I'm looking forward to reading your full review. Meantime it's a bit of a wait yet for mine. I opted for the Bluetooth, 512mb Ram and the Superdrive.
Now I know I won't be disappointed.:P except for the 32mb video issue, i think I can live with that.

It's going to be in the April issue (if I can finish it on time, that is - right, Jason?).

How much extra were your BTO options?

[alhuang1]

Just to share my two cents, I've now been using my 1.42 ghz mac mini since Jan 29 when I got it in HK. I have similar comments to Adel i.e. the ram is just too small. I have it connected to an external HD where I store all my music and with about 80 gb of music, the ram just isn't enough. I get pauses at times of 2 seconds or more when doing work with my music collection. I have it connected to an AOC 17's lcd monitor and so far, so good. Of course I'm not doing any special video editing or gaming. I suspect that the video card may be insufficient for some users. Bottomline is, I got tired of connecting my external HD to my powerbook and wanted a central working computer where I could do stuff like my music and in the future, video.

By the way, I saw first hand someone opening up and upgrading the ram of the mac mini. I was in HK yerterday and was at Designer Group store which is an authorized reseller of apple. someone bought a mac mini and wanted a ram upgrade. they did the upgrade in front of me. yup they used the putty knife thingy. very simple. gave me a lot of confidence to do it. at some point, I'm going to change my ram to 512 or 1 gb. will share with you when i do it and give feedback onthe experience.

all in all, I love the mac mini. Oh yes, I wanted to buy also the airport card and bluetooth card. the kit I understand is not yet available for another month or so at least that's what the guys in HK told me. am currently connecting my bluetooth keyboard and mouse via a belkin dongle. works great. my dream is to have a clutter free mac mini with only two main connections, one for the power and the other for the display.

[victorpanlilio]

A 2-inch putty knife is the standard tool to open the case. We have opened one up (look for videos on the Net on how to do it, e.g. at OWC -- www.macsales.com) and the only thing to remember is the back edge (where the lower part of the case with ports meets the top) goes back first, otherwise a small gap will occur when you snap the top back into place. Also, DO NOT try to load OS X Server on it unless you have it hooked up to a DVI LCD at 1024x768, or else you will not be able to finish configuring it, onscreen widgets to continue the process will NOT be visible or even clickable offscreen. It's small and cute, and we plan to use one as an internal test server and repository for Subversion CVS.

[airjunkie]

Originally posted by Adel


How much extra were your BTO options?

Everything but the AP card (not sure if it's available here...maybe it is and I just might add it if it isn't too late) for a total of P55,288.00
too bad it isn't included in the BPI Madness promo.

[Edited on 3-13-2005 by airjunkie]

[angelo]

OT question...

Based on your picture above, you have a G4 Quicksilver. AFAIK, it only accomodates 1 optical drive. How did you manage to put another one? Is that a custom job?

Thanks in advance and congrats to your new toy!

[hoho]

Boss Kabubi,

I just upgraded my Mac Mini to 1GB of RAM, and now, WoW runs quite nicely on it. I've been using the Mac Mini to play WoW the last few days.

Of course, with less video RAM, I had to tone down terrain details on WoW, but I do that even on my PBook which has 128MB of RAM. Mostly, the lag I see now is server caused, and not caused by the processor...

Upgrading the RAM was pretty intense, since the popping and cracking sounds that the case makes when you're prying it open can freak you out. It sounds like something is breaking, but not really...

In my case, I use a 20" Apple Cinema Display and Keyboard. For my mouse, I use a Logitech MX500 mouse. Multiple buttons rock for WoW...

H

[Adel]

Originally posted by angelo
OT question...

Based on your picture above, you have a G4 Quicksilver. AFAIK, it only accomodates 1 optical drive. How did you manage to put another one? Is that a custom job?

Thanks in advance and congrats to your new toy!

Hi Angelo.

Hmm. Dunno why you think I have two optical drives. I have just one, in the upper bay: a Pioneer A08 Dual-Layer Superdrive.

The second bay houses an internal ZIP drive, connected via IDE. It's about the only thing that'll fit in the lower bay. I bought a ZIP drive bezel and installed it myself. I also removed the CDRW optical drive that came with the Quicksilver and installed the A08 myself.

I've had zero use for the Zip drive for a few years now, but it still works fine.

Boss Hoho, I use a Microsoft Wheel Mouse Optical, and yes, multiple buttons do rock for WoW!

[angelo]

Oh, sorry! :blush:

I thought it was some sort of slot-loading optical drive. I've always want to put another optical drive in that lower bay just like the MDD macs.

Thanks again!